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Provo • In the space of about a month, the BYU football team has gone from the best of times to close to the worst of times in the Bronco Mendenhall coaching era.
The collapse has been sudden, unexpected and spectacular in its scope.
The Cougars have lost three straight games to non-power five opponents, including back-to-back home games for the first time in 10 years, games they were favored to win by 21 and 12 points. Once 4-0 and ranked 18th in the country, they were embarrassed by an instate rival on their home field, are on their longest overall losing streak since 2010, and obviously don't have the depth or talent that usually defines a good football team in a major conference.
Failure to overcome significant injuries to nearly a dozen starters, including quarterback Taysom Hill, has put a spotlight on that obvious shortcoming during a season in which the Cougars have had plenty of national exposure to make a case that they belong.
It doesn't get easier after Saturday night's 42-35 loss to Nevada (4-3) for Mendenhall and his troops to recover. BYU (4-3) faces another short week, traveling to Boise State for a Friday night showdown (7 p.m., ESPN) on the blue turf. The Broncos (5-2) dropped Fresno State 37-27 the night before BYU crumbled in the second half against Nevada.
"This week we got, in my opinion, a rivalry game," receiver Mitch Mathews said after catching 16 passes for 182 yards and two touchdowns against the Wolf Pack. "We have to prepare hard, and we will do that, for sure. We will bounce back and trust the heck out of our quarterback and all the rest of our players."
Generally, Mendenhall shoulders the responsibility for losses, or at least refers to coaching errors or adjustment shortcomings as playing a role in setbacks. But he was uncharacteristically hard on his players with his post-game comments in the wee hours Sunday morning after the three hour, 35-minute game that kicked off at 8:26 p.m. He alluded to player mistakes and the overall lack of execution several times.
He refused to use the injury excuse, saying those don't do any good to talk about, don't matter, and are part of the deal in major college football.
"Execution — it is as simple as that," Mendenhall said. "Assignment-sound football in critical moments [was lacking], and in noncritical moments. Ball security [three fumbles] had something to do with it."
And when he was asked why quarterback Christian Stewart threw the ball 63 times in a game in which BYU had a 15-point lead in the third quarter, he called the offensive plan "just phenomenal" and said he thought the run-throw balance "was right on the money."
For their part, the players who spoke to reporters — Stewart, Mathews, running back Nate Carter and linebacker Bronson Kaufusi — took the blame.
"Two weeks in a row, [when] you lose a game you should've won, it hurts," Stewart said. "Obviously, guys aren't happy, but we are a resilient team and we're not quitters. And this is only going to motivate us more going into next week against Boise State."
Two fumbles by Stewart and one by Terenn Houk after an awkward backwards pass were the most glaring miscues, along with a missed 44-yard field goal attempt by Trevor Samson that would have made it a three-score game. A drive-killing offensive pass-interference penalty on Mathews, Scott Arellano's 17-yard punt and Tejan Koroma's 15-yard personal foul penalty for shoving a Nevada player who was taunting Stewart after a sack cost the Cougars big-time in the field position fight.
Mendenhall's plan this week: "First of all, at this particular time period, I am challenging them. It is time for cleaner execution. It is time for a collective rise to the occasion of performance and each player being accountable for doing their job exactly right. Not kind of right, not sometimes right, but exactly right.
"It is controllable, and that is the solution, and so if I am able to capture their hearts around that, it will change. If they think there is another way, it won't."
Twitter: @drewjay —
BYU at Boise St.
O Friday, 7 p.m. MDT
TV • ESPN